EP1660829A1

EP1660829A1 - Shelf base for a refrigerator

Info

Publication number: EP1660829A1
Application number: EP04786223A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Thomas KNÖLLER; Petra WÜSTLLING; Ralf Grobleben
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH
Current assignee: BSH Hausgeraete GmbH
Priority date: 2003-08-29
Filing date: 2004-08-30
Publication date: 2006-05-31
Also published as: CN100398961C; DE202004021747U1; CN1842686A; WO2005026635A1; US20060255704A1; DE10339932A1

Abstract

A shelf base for a refrigerator comprises a plate (9) and upper and lower retaining rails (12, 11), running along an upper and a lower side of the plate (9), for mounting a support (15, 13) to house chilled goods. The retaining rails, connected in a unit, may be shifted along the transverse direction of the plate (9).

Description

Shelf for a refrigerator

The present invention relates to a shelf for use in a refrigerator, in particular in a refrigerator. Such shelves are generally loaded with objects to be cooled, the height of which must not be greater than the height of a compartment which the shelf delimits at the bottom. If the height of the items is less, efficient use of the cooling space is difficult, since not all items to be stored in a refrigerator are suitable for stacking, and even if stacking is possible, stacking takes time and access to items located in the bottom of the stack arduous.

In order to improve the possibilities of utilizing space in a refrigeration device, a shelf has been proposed, on the underside of which there are holding rails on which a container hanging from the shelf can be attached. Such a container allows the volume of a compartment below the shelf to be used efficiently even when objects placed on the bottom of this compartment are significantly smaller than the height of the compartment.

The object of the invention is to further improve the diversity of the space utilization options of such a shelf.

The object is achieved by a shelf with the features of claim 1.

The holding rails extending on the top of the shelf plate allow a special carrier for refrigerated goods to be attached to the top of the shelf.

Each upper holding rail is preferably connected to one end of one of the lower holding rails at at least one of its ends, preferably the front end. This connection is preferably established via a bracket bridging the front edge of the plate, which can be moved along the front edge and thus also a displacement of the holding rails along the plate allowed. In this way, the support rails can be moved to the location of the shelf where they can be used most efficiently.

It is also expedient if a single clamp connects all of the upper and lower holding rails to one another. Thus, even with a shift, the distance between the upper holding rails and between the lower holding rails is kept constant, and the carriers, the width of which is adapted to this distance of the rails, are held securely regardless of a shift of the rails.

The rear ends of an upper and a lower holding rail can also be connected by a clip which bridges the rear edge of the plate and is displaceable along the rear edge. If both ends of the rails are each connected by such clamps, these form a unit which extends around the shelf and can only unintentionally detach from the plate in the event of a break in the rails. However, the rails can still be detached from the plate in a non-destructive manner by removing the shelf from the refrigerator and scraping the rails connected to one another in the lateral direction.

The lower and / or the upper holding rails are preferably open at their front ends in order to allow the attachment of a carrier by pushing it into the rails from the front without the need to dismantle the rails. In order to prevent a carrier from undesirably becoming detached from the holding rails when it is pulled out, at least one rail is formed at the front end of the support surface supporting the carrier, an upward projection which a carrier held in the rails can only overcome if it is pulled at the same time and is raised, which effectively prevents the carrier from being unintentionally pulled out of the holding rails.

The lower holding rails can be used in particular to mount a bowl or bottle holder as a carrier. The upper holding rails can be used to attach a carrier for beverage cans. Such a carrier can be simply constructed from a base plate parallel to the plate of the shelf and protruding from the base plate and provided with indentations Ribs in which a beverage can is secured in a lying position against rolling away.

A carrier, which can be attached in the upper or lower holding rails, is an egg carrier.

Such an egg carrier can be formed in a simple manner by a perforated base plate, the openings of which are provided to receive the eggs, side flanks unwound from the base plate and brims protruding from the side flanks and engaging in the holding rails. Such an egg carrier can, provided that the side flanks are of sufficient height, be used in the upper or the lower holding rails in accordance with the needs of the user.

Further features and advantages of the invention result from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached figures. Show it:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator, which is equipped with a shelf according to the invention.

2 shows a partial view of a shelf with retaining rails mounted thereon and supports held in the retaining rails;

FIG. 3 shows a section through the shelf from FIG. 2 with the carrier omitted;

4 shows a section through a shelf according to a second embodiment of the invention;

5 shows an egg carrier which can be mounted on the holding rails; and

Fig. 6 is a shell for attachment to the lower support rails of the shelf. 1 is a perspective view of a combination refrigerator with cooling zone 1 and freezing zone 2, with doors 3, 4 open. The cooling zone 1 is divided into a plurality of compartments by shelves 5, 6, 7. The shelves 5, 6, 7 are each formed in the present case by a glass plate 9 encased in a plastic frame 8 and supported by supporting ribs arranged on the side walls of the cooling zone 1. In the case of the shelf 6, the front area of the frame 8 is encompassed by a U-section 10, from the two ends of which a holding rail 11, 12 extends above and below the glass plate 9 to the rear wall of the cooling zone 1, the holding rails 11 and 12 are arranged one above the other, separated by the glass plate 9.

The shelf 6 is shown in FIG. 2 in an enlarged partial view and in FIG. 3 in section along a vertical plane running between the upper holding rails 11. In the case of FIG. 2, the upper holding rails 11 are equipped with a partially pulled-out holder 13 for beverage cans 14, the lower holding rails 12 with a bottle holder 15 for holding a bottle (not shown) horizontally.

As can be seen in FIG. 3, the front U-profile 10 merges in one piece into the two upper and lower holding rails 11, 12. The upper holding rails 11 have a cross section to the plane of FIG. 3, a U-shaped cross section with horizontal legs 16, 17, of which the lower 17 forms a support surface for the can carrier 13. The bearing surface of the leg 17 is slightly lower than the upper side 18 of the U-profile 10, so that the can carrier 13 cannot be pulled out of the holding rails 11 at the front (to the right in the figure) without first passing it over the top 18 of the U. - Lift profiles 10 away.

The lower holding rails 12 each have an L-shaped cross section transversely to the plane of FIG. 3, and a bearing surface for the bottle holder 15 on the top of a horizontal leg 19 of the L is at its front end adjacent to the U-profile 10 by an after Completed above protrusion 20, which serves in the same way as the projecting top 18 to prevent the carrier from accidentally slipping out of the rails. The part of the frame 8 facing the rear wall of the cooling zone, on the left in FIG. 3, is provided with an upwardly projecting web 21 in order to prevent or at least make it more difficult to prevent unintentional contact between the refrigerated goods placed on the shelf 6 and the rear wall. The upper holding rails 11 extend in an arc over the web 21 and between the rear edge of the frame 8 and the rear wall and finally merge with the lower holding rails 12. A traverse 22, which extends parallel to the rear edge of the frame 8, connects the rear Ends of all four holding rails 11, 12 with one another. The four rails 11, 12 thus form a rigid unit which can be moved in the transverse direction of the shelf 6. To remove them when not in use, the shelf can be removed from the refrigerator and the unit can be pushed sideways off the shelf.

The can carrier 13 from FIG. 2 is a one-piece plastic injection-molded part with a base plate 23, the lateral edges of which each rest on the lower legs 17 of the upper holding rails 11, and two ribs 24 projecting upright from the base plate 23 and parallel to the holding rails are provided with a plurality of circular segment-shaped indentations 25 along their upper edge. The radius of the indentations 25 is adapted to the radius of commercially available beverage cans, so that they are held securely in a lying position on the ribs 24. The fact that the can carrier 13 can be pulled out of the holding rails 11 makes it easy to access a rear can 14 without first clearing away the cans in front, as would be required in the conventional storage of the cans on one of the shelves 5.

The bottle holder 15 is an elongated, open-ended basket made of plastic or powder-coated metal with a closed base plate 26 and, starting from this base plate 26, wires 27 forming side flanks of the bottle carrier, which are at their upper ends by two each in one of the lower holding rails 12 engaging horizontal webs are connected. The wires 27 can have a certain flexibility, so that by compressing the flanks of the bottle carrier 15, it is possible to disengage the webs from the holding rails 12 and to remove the bottle carrier 15 without pulling it forward out of the holding rails 12. Fig. 4 shows a section analogous to that of Fig. 3 through a second embodiment of the shelf. Here, the upper and lower holding rails 11 and 12 are not connected in the region of their rear ends, but the rear ends of the lower mounting rail 12 are suspended on the rear edge of the frame 8 with the aid of the cross-section L-shaped cross member 22 here, and the rear ends the upper holding rails 11- each have a hook 28 engaging behind the web 21 of the frame 8. The U-profile 10 is constructed in two parts, from an upper section 29 connected to the upper holding rails 11 and a lower section 30 connected to the lower support rails 12, which are locked together. By lifting the hook 28 over the web 21 and pulling the upper holding rails 11 towards the front, the latching connection between the sections 29, 30 can be released, the front end of the lower holding rails 12 with the section 30 is released, and the lower holding rails 12 can be removed be pushed back so far that the contact between the horizontal leg of the cross member 22 and the frame 8 is lost and the support rails 12 can be removed downwards. This operation is also possible without removing the shelf 6 from the refrigerator.

5 shows, as a further example of a carrier which can be used with the shelf 6, an egg carrier 31. Circular openings 33 are formed in a horizontal plate 32, the diameter of which is slightly smaller than that of an egg and which can each accommodate one egg. At two edges of the plate 32 there are vertical flanks 34 and horizontal webs 35, which are provided for engaging in holding rails. A gripping section 37, which is angled relative to the plate 32, is formed on a third edge. In the orientation shown, the egg carrier 31 can be mounted in the upper holding rails 11; if the vertical flanks 34 are of sufficient height, however, it is also possible to mount the carrier 31 loaded with eggs with the webs 35 turned upward in the lower holding rails 12.

The lower holding rails 12 can also be equipped with a shell 36 as shown in FIG. 6, on the edges of which horizontal webs 35 are formed for engaging in the holding rails 12.

Claims

claims

1. shelf (6) for a refrigerator with a plate (9) and extending along an underside of the plate (9) lower holding rails (12) for attaching a carrier (13) for receiving refrigerated goods, characterized in that upper holding rails ( 11) for a further carrier (13, 31) extend along the top of the plate (9).

2. Shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that the holding rails (11, 12) are arranged one above the other.

3. Shelf according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that the holding rails (11, 12) are arranged in the direction of the holder of the shelf (6) in the refrigerator serving holding means.

4. Shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper holding rails (11) are each connected to at least one of their ends with one end of one of the lower holding rails (12).

5. Shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that the front ends of one of the upper (11) and one of the lower (12) holding rails are connected by a front profile of the plate (9) bridging and displaceable along the front edge guide profile (10).

6. Shelf according to claim 4, characterized in that the bracket (10) connects all the upper and lower support rails (11, 12) with each other.

7. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that rear ends each of the upper and one of the lower holding rails (11, 12) bridge the rear edge of the plate (9) and are slidably connected along the rear edge.

8. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lower and / or the upper holding rails (11, 12) are open at their front ends.

9. Shelf according to claim 7, characterized in that an upwardly projecting projection (20) is formed at the front end of a support surface of at least one lower rail (12).

10. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a shell (36) or a bottle holder (15) is mounted in the lower holding rails (12) as a carrier.

11. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a carrier (13) for beverage cans (14) is attached in the upper holding rails (11).

12. Shelf according to claim 10, characterized in that the carrier for beverage cans (14) has a parallel to the plate (9) base plate (23) and from the base plate (23) projecting, provided with indentations ribs (24).

13. Shelf according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that an egg carrier (31) is attached in the upper or lower holding rails (11, 12).

14. Shelf according to claim 12, characterized in that the egg carrier (31) has a perforated base plate (23), from the base plate (23) angled side flanks (34) and from the side flanks (34) projecting into the holding rails (11, 12 ) engaging webs (35).